Followers

Monday, April 27, 2009

After months of resistance, I have finally joined the Twitter revolution.

The annual LDStorymakers writers conference was this weekend, and since it was in Utah and I was not, I wasn't able to attend this year. Fortunately, a couple of Storymakers on set up a Twitter grid that allowed them to send tweets from the conference. And so...I followed.

And even though I wasn't there, following the Twitter grid made me feel like I'd been there a little, in spirit, participating and cheering everyone on in some disembodied sort of way. Very cool. So I really have to thank all those who supplied the tweets to those of us who wanted to be there but couldn't--particularly Marsha Ward, Matthew Buckley, and Ben Crowder.

And, of course, there's this little side effect now--I now know how to Twitter and I now have an account. So I've been giving it a go. I think I've sent two whole tweets outside of the ones I sent during the LDStorymakers conference.

I was worried that Twittering would be incredibly time-consuming, sending out periodic tweets and keeping up with everyone else's. But at first glance, it seems like keeping up with the occasional tweet might actually be a lot easier than writing big blog entries and keeping up with everyone else's. (Sorry, blog fans; that's just how it is.)

We'll just have to see how this thing goes. After all, the experience of my two tweets and six followers has not yet catapulted me into the position of Supreme Twitter Guru.

So, if you're in the Twitter neighborhood, you can find me there at @katie_parker ... Yes, that underscore between "katie" and "parker" is important. No, I don't know who snagged the username without the underscore before I did. But you might get to if you try to follow her instead of me.

Seriously, though--I'm not going to say that everyone has to go Twitter now. But I will say that it might not be as crazy as I'd previously thought.

And, congratulations to the LDStorymakers for putting on a fabulous conference this year! I might not have been there personally, but I could tell it was definitely fabulous.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Big kudos go to a young lady who demonstrated recently that there are things more important than even the Miss USA crown--something that she'd undoubtedly worked towards for a very long time.

During the recent Miss USA pageant, as a finalist for the crown Miss California was asked whether she thought that every state should legalize gay marriage. None of the questions for the finalists were meant to be easy, but this one was a loaded cannon. Her answer, quite simply, was that she believed that marriage was between a man and a woman.

Since that time, she's been razzed, first off, for stating her personal beliefs in such a forum as the Miss USA pageant. (But why shouldn't she? The judge asked her what she thought. What else was she supposed to say?) She's also been razzed for not coming up with a more middle-of-the-road answer that would have pleased everyone. She was so close to winning that crown; if she'd just told the judges what they wanted to hear, she very likely could have had it. She could have said something more general, such as, "I think the states should decide this issue for themselves," and she could have been crowned Miss USA.

But even that wasn't really what she thought. Instead, she stood up for her beliefs and she called it like she saw it. After all, dumping the responsibility on the states still doesn't change the real heart of the question: Do you believe that this is what they should choose?

In an interview on the Today show, she said that she'd realized that winning the Miss USA crown wasn't God's plan for her. She went on to explain to the skeptical interviewer that the pageant outcome has opened up many opportunities for her already to share with people the idea that they should stand up for their beliefs, no matter what the consequences may be.

After all, it wasn't the woman who'd ultimately won the Miss USA title who was receiving all this publicity now. It was her, Miss California. She's now in a far better position to spread that message than she ever would have been if she'd hedged on her answer. And she knows that even though she may have offended some of the judges with her answer, she did not offend her own conscience. Nor did she offend her God.

So, way to go, Miss California! You've already made a bigger impact by staying true to your beliefs than you would have if you'd simply kissed up to the judges. Thanks for your example and for continuing to handle the situation gracefully.